Champagne is generally associated with feelings of euphoric excess and the special occasions that prompt them -- New Year's Eve celebrations, weddings, birthdays, promotions. Even if you're in the mood to splurge, a large crowd or a tight budget can prompt the pursuit of cheap Champagne. From France to Spain, Italy, and California, there's enough excellent bubbly to go around for $10 or less. The challenge lies in knowing what you're buying. We considered online reviews and ratings from a variety of sources and consulted a wine expert to come up with our top picks.

If you think cheap white wine is only for grandma's spritzer, think again. There's a white wine -- costing no more than $10 to satisfy almost anyone's palate. Inexpensive white wines can complement a range of foods, brighten up a lazy summer afternoon, and make an excellent substitute for pre-dinner cocktails. White wines typically present fruity and/or floral flavors and aromas, sometimes offer a bit of spice and earthiness, and range in sugar content from bone dry to dessert-level sweet. We've made top picks based on tastings, ratings, reviews, and awards, on top of expert advice, and suspect wine drinkers will find at least one selection to suit both their sipping preferences and their budget.

Who needs a premium red wine when a thoroughly respectable bottle costs $10 or less? Frugal quaffers who know even a little bit about wine and aren't afraid to go with what they like will find many such bottles. There are hundreds of cheap red wines out there -- some barely worth the few dollars you'd pay but many worth drinking. With so many styles, grape varieties, producers, and labels to choose among, shopping can be a challenge. To guide wine drinkers through the thicket, we've made top picks based on tastings, ratings, reviews, awards, and expert advice. We've also selected a wide array of other inexpensive red wines fit to serve with a meal, bring to a party, or sip over the course of a quiet evening.

Velocity Micro Edge Z40 Review

The Edge Z40 is a truly cheap system that far outperforms others at this price with the help of an overclocked CPU. Add a little more memory to this PC and you'll have a budget gaming system that can hold its own against much more expensive machines.

This gaming computer seems to have made a strong impression on most reviewers. In a Velocity Micro Edge Z40 review for CNET, a senior editor raves about the value of this gaming PC, giving it the site's Editors' Choice award. In testing, the Edge Z40 produced numbers that were competitive with much more expensive systems, according to the review. An analyst at PC Mag is equally enthusiastic in his Velocity Micro Edge Z40 review. He found that this model annihilated other similarly priced PCs in gaming tests. The combination of performance and price earn the Edge Z40 an Editors' Choice tag from PC Mag as well.

As reviewed, the Velocity Micro Edge Z40 (starting at $999; $1,219 as reviewed, Amazon) is powered by an Intel Core i5-2500K quad-core CPU that has been "hyperclocked" to 4 GHz from 3.3 GHz. The default configuration includes only 4GB of RAM, so you may want to kick that up to 8GB (for an additional $80). As for video power, the Z40 machines reviewers evaluated include a Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card. A 1TB, 7,200 rpm hard drive provides plenty of storage. The Edge Z40 includes a DVD-RW drive and, unlike most gaming PCs, comes with a keyboard and mouse in its base configuration. The 700-watt power supply provides more than enough power for this system and can easily handle several future upgrades, such as a much more powerful video card. Reviewers note, however, that if you'd like to eventually add a second video card, you'll have to switch from the Nvidia brand to AMD Radeon, as the motherboard doesn't support Nvidia's linking technology (known as SLI).

Where to buy

The Velocity Micro Edge Z40 is a good value in its default configuration, but if you're willing to kick in a few hundred dollars more, you can turn this system into an excellent gaming rig while keeping the price relatively low. Consider overclocking the processor, doubling the memory, and springing for a stronger, faster video card. If you don't need the keyboard and mouse, you can remove them from the configuration and save yourself $20. Either way, that's a top budget gaming PC for less than $1,300.

Michael Sweet

Michael Sweet writes about consumer electronics. If something runs on electricity or ones and zeroes, he's interested in it. Sweet has written about PC technology and consumer electronics for 14 years.